The BBC head of network radio, Tim Davie, has come to the defence of Radio 1 DJ Chris Moyles after his 30-minute on-air rant, saying he had suffered a "rough morning" and has always been someone who "speaks his mind".

Davie, the BBC's head of audio and music, said he wanted to give Moyles space to express himself and did not regard the broadcast as a breach of editorial standards.

"I don't think it was utterly inappropriate," Davie told the Guardian's Media Talk podcast. "I think at the end of the day, Chris is always going to be someone who speaks his mind. His listeners know that. It was a lively broadcast, he said he had a pretty rough morning, but that's what listeners expect from Moyles.

"There's a huge difference between deep editorial issues that are causing offence to the audience and whether a DJ like Chris is talking about, or frankly ranting about, something for a while. People like myself are very clear that we want to give DJs space to do their thing, that's what we do. It's different to whether there's a breach of editorial standards, where we've got to be very tough."

However, the BBC Vision director, Jana Bennett, admitted the broadcast was "pretty unusual". She said it was a "wrong side of the bed type day" for the DJ.

"He's obviously a human being, it probably was a really bad hair day and if he wasn't paid I would hope it would be something he would talk to his bosses about. I would absolutely hope the situation is rectified. He obviously let it all out in a way that was pretty unusual."

Separately, Davie said he was "happy with the current arrangements" for BBC Radio 5 Live controller Adrian Van Klaveren not to move to the north-west full-time when his station moves to Salford next year. "The primary question is can someone do the job and run the station," he said

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